False Gods: Book 2 of the Horus Heresy

Written by Graham McNeill and originally released of June 2006 False Gods is the second book in the Horus Heresy series. The cast of characters is very much the same as within the first book and even with the change in authors these characters still feel like the same ones from the first book. That is with the one glaring exception of Horus himself. Please don’t get me wrong, I know that for the Horus Heresy to happen it is necessary for Horus to commit Heresy, I simply didn’t find the sudden way in which it occurs within this book overly gratifying or believable.

Similarly to the first book this story revolves largely around Garviel Loken, Captain of the 10th company of the Sons of Horus Space Marines. The remembrancers assigned to the expedition that featured in the first novel are also prevalent in this story. The worship of the Emperor, which was seen in one or two characters in the first book, explodes as the tragedy of Horus’s near death causes the mortal members of the 63rd expedition to turn somewhere for guidance and hope. The fighting on Davin 3, one of the planet of Davin’s moons, is particularly interesting as we see the forces of Chaos in large numbers for the first time in the series. Here the entire imperial force that assigned to govern Davin has been converted into forces of Nurgle, mainly plague zombies. This part of the book is very interesting and overall False Gods does a great job of both keeping the action going and forwarding the over arching story of the Horus Heresy.

I did enjoy this book and will certainly continue to read the Horus Heresy series but I’m still a bit sour about how quickly Horus decided to turn his back on the Emperor and attempt to put himself in charge of the destiny of mankind. Next up: Galaxy in Flames!